Today's sermon at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN
Texts: Acts 8:14-17 and Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
This is the Sunday—each year—that we celebrate the baptism of Jesus. And of course there are several different versions of this story in the gospels. Today’s reading from Luke doesn’t tell about the actual baptism. It tells about what John the Baptizer has to say beforehand and what happens after all the people have been baptized and Jesus has been baptized.
It says, “…and when Jesus had also been baptized and way praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” [1]
God is making a statement. “You are mine and I love you!” What a glorious affirmation!
John had said he baptized with water but the one who was coming after him—Jesus—would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
In our other reading, from Acts, the Apostles learned that the people of Samaria had accepted the word of God, so they sent Peter and John to visit them. The Samaritans had been baptized in the name of Jesus but they hadn’t yet received the Holy Spirit. When Peter & John got there, they laid their hands on the people and then the people received the Holy Spirit.
What do you suppose it’s like to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire? What’s it like to be on fire for God and for Jesus?
Ron Buford, the creator of “God is Still Speaking,” has this to say in yesterday’s Still Speaking meditation: “It's about something we often take for granted . . . the miracle that happens when God’s diverse children gather, filled with expectation that God might show up to trouble the waters of our hearts and minds, filling our bellies with the unquenchable fire we need to get through another week, inspiring new ideas and action, gently descending upon us like an unexpected dove.
“Beneath the collective and secret longings of people pretending that everything is OK [lie] the real and hidden hopes of longing people. God, like a knowing lover, gently turns the doorknob of our longing hearts, awakening them to quiver within us.
“Many leave worship thinking and feeling nothing happened. But the open and expectant [leave] with new power and courage to do things they never thought possible.
“Amid the ascending hopes of people and the descending power of God, we publicly baptize our sons and daughters just as Jesus was baptized—among neighbors and friends, into community. In the presence of God, [in the presence of] the living and the dead, saints past, present and future, we claim their lives and reclaim our own for hope, sealed with our unbreakable promise to love them and be loved . . . no matter what.” [2]
All of our lives are journeys. Jesus’ life was a journey. None of us knows what boulders will be strewn across our path or where we’ll dance through sunlit meadows. All we can do is move forward and trust in God’s love.
We hear the story of the baptism of Jesus here, in the season of Epiphany each year. “Epiphany” means manifestation or revelation or showing, and implies a shining light. This story is full of revelation—can you imagine the heavens as they seem to open up and the voice of God speaking directly to Jesus, saying, “You are my Beloved”?
Some of us have experienced a similar knowing—that we, too, are God’s beloved. We have felt it right here (in our hearts). But how many others still need to know they are loved? By God and by people. We can show them, not just at their baptism, but through all their lives. We are loved by God, and in turn we share that love with others. I believe that’s the most important thing we are called to do!
Baptism was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He then set out on an incredible journey. On that journey he touched the hearts and lives of many, many people. Whether or not he knew at the beginning exactly where that journey would end up, I don’t know for sure, but he trusted in God’s love, just as we can trust in God’s love for our life-long journeys.
I could imagine this poem being appropriate at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry; just as it was appropriate for the Israelites when they set out on their journey to the Promised Land; just as it is appropriate for all of us who are on the journey of life:
I send you forth to the land which has been promised
that it has been promised is all I know.
I do not know the shape of the land
the route which you must go
the dangers certain to befall.
My small experience leads me to suggest
you should expect your share of desert places
where oases vanish upon close inspection
and water springs up from unlikely places.
Also you should beware the Golden Calf
or any beast pretending to be God
the likely candidates will have immense appeal
and an unpleasant aftertaste.
The great advantage of the Promised Land
is that it will wait for you
if on the road a man waylaid by thieves
or startling beauty should distract you
there is time.
You will know when you have reached the land
by the sudden fear you feel
at the edge of grace
and the strong pull of familiar Egypt on your soul
and the knowledge that there is no turning back.
Farewell, beloved
put on the whole armor of God
but leave your heart exposed
since life, like death, demands a certain vulnerability.
And learn a song or two to sing in a strange land.
Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves
accepting the worst from people, expecting the best
You are less what you have learned than what you have learned to love.
Love is your journey's name
and your final rest. [3]
Blessing. Beloved. Fire, wind, and water: life is utterly mysterious and yet, here in the unknown, here in the midst of all that might make us afraid, God is near to us, just as God was near to Jesus as he stood there in the River Jordan, with so much still ahead of him. As he moved forward through it all, step by step, he knew that he was God’s Beloved.
Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, is supposed to have passionately urged people to “remember your baptism!” For anyone baptized as an adult, that is probably a very special, meaningful memory. Those of us who were baptized as infants won’t remember our baptism day, but hopefully we have a sense of how special it was whenever we take part in a baptism here in our own congregation.
Whether we can remember our baptismal day or not is much less important than whether we can remember that we, too, are blessed and beloved. Even if we have not yet been baptized, we can trust and know that we are blessed and beloved, because baptism, is a blessing that doesn’t make us or our lives sacred but acknowledges that we—and our lives—already are sacred. Baptism recognizes that we are already filled with grace. It doesn’t matter if the sky opens up and the voice of God can be heard because the Spirit is already in our midst. [4]
Whoever we are; wherever we are; wherever we’re going, we are all God’s beloved and the Epiphany light of love travels with us.
Let us pray: Gracious God, we remember and thank you for our baptism and our congregations. We give thanks that we belong to you, body and soul, in life and in death, and that we also belong to a great community that has claimed us for hope, no matter who we are or where we are on life’s journey. Help us to live and love together as people who remember your love and our promises. [5] AMEN.
Endnotes
[1] Luke 3:21b-22, NRSV.
[2] http://act.ucc.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=22301.0&dlv_id=25041
[3] “The Journey” by David Bartlett.
[4] Adapted from http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/january-10-2010.html
[5] Ron Buford, Still Speaking Daily Devotional, January 9, 2010.
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